Priorities
Isn’t it strange when our national news spends 10 minutes covering impending doom to North America over hurricanes and preparedness (or lack thereof) and then, almost as an after thought, mentions 10 Million people newly homeless as a result of flooding from the forming of aforementioned hurricanes.? But that’s not news! No way! Why would…
Keith Urban concert-damaged Common.
Remarks: Once again a concert trashes the Common, and once again Bigelow says the crews are out working their turf magic and everything will be honky dory…by spring. “That’s why we have concerts in the fall, when the Commons isn’t typically in use,” he says. (Hey, we just report.) Bigelow blames the heavy rain in…
Memoires of a Mental Patient
I went to your hospital to get well, not to be treated like an animal. One day, because I “seemed agitated,” you threw me in a locked cell for 9 days and 9 nights, with nothing but a filty piss-stained mattress and disturbing graffitti to keep me company. The guards left bruises all over my…
Fall for the arts
So today I was invited by RodMac to the provincial government’s Fall for the Arts launch. Last week I received a very posh flower arrangement from them, I suppose as incentive to attend. It works–I felt guilted into going even though my cat ate a bunch of the flowers last night and puked on the…
Kathleen Edwards at the Seahorse!
In the best announcement we’ve heard all season, Kathleen motherfucking Edwards will finally headline her own Halifax show on September 15, in the intimate confines of The Seahorse, no less! The last time Polaris Prize-nominated alt-country juggernaut Edwards played town it was to open for Bryan Adams, a pain we just don’t need to relive.…
it’s getting hot in here
To all the women out there who wear next to nothing and think we are pigs when we “check” you out if you don’t want guys looking at your ass than cover it up! but thanks for the free show where have all the good people gone
War show
If the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have demonstrated anything, it’s that all the hi-tech weaponry in the world doesn’t accomplish much in terms of advancing geopolitical aims. Our troops, and their weapons, have been in Afghanistan for over six years, and yet the Taliban remains a powerful force and peace is as elusive as ever.…
Big Corporation Landlords have no heart
To a particular staff member at the apartment building with the big K on it…big poofy brown hair girl we shall call her: Stop power tripping and being a complete and utter bitch to me and my room mate. You accused us of something we did not do and proceeded to verbally abuse us in…
updated my resume
Hey guys, Do me a favor and check out my revised cover letter and let me know what you think. Im having a hard time finding work. To Whom it may concern, My name is Mike. I am a man that really needs a job. I know my resume is shitty but Im an awesome…
stop fuckin’ shining you annoying non-diamonds
I am sick of shinerama. What’s it been, like 50 million years since someone came up with socially sanctioned panhandling as a means of introducing the city to it’s fresh crop of fresh-faced, fresh smelling frosh and making a few pennies for cystic fibrosis?? I bet I could raise money for systic fibrosis if I…
We Open at 12
It’s pretty common that most stores open at noon on sundays, exceptions to walmart and grocery stores that I can think of. So why are you waiting in the parking lot of my store at 10 when I get there to start opening? The hours are displayed very clearly on the door, go get yourself…
Jesus And Buddha At Play
Okay, Fringers. Top Ten Best Comedy Duos. 1. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy 2. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello 3. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis 4. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders 5. Peter Cook and Dudley Moore 6. Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster 7. Mike Nichols and Elaine May 8. Tom and Dick Smothers 9.…
Concert damage to the Common
Once again a concert trashes the Common, and once again city staffer Peter Bigelow says the crews are out working their turf magic and everything will be honky dory… by spring. “That’s why we have concerts in the fall, when the Commons isn’t typically in use,” he says. (Hey, I just report these things.) Bigelow…
Girls with losers
Whats the deal with the girls who are perfect? Beautiful, smart and fun, but date total douchebags. Sure they are nice looking, but care not for their beautiful girl friends. Lack of respect, personality and love is stupid. I wish you could see how stupid these losers are. Nice Guys finish last,,,,,
Dear Co-Workers: I’m Not Sick!
Please, for god sakes, stop telling me that I “don’t sound too good” every other morning when I come to work. My voice is raspy when I get up, I can’t help it. I am not getting up two hours earlier so I don’t sound raspy in the morning, nor will I do vocal warm…
Disgusted!
To a former Boss: You shit-bag! I cannot believe the way you treat your employees like they are orc peons! You wonder why people come and go from this fucking job. Believe me, my pay check isn’t worth putting up with your “my shit don’t stink” attitude. A little bit of curtosy and respect for…
Vogue SuperWalk
September brings many changes, from back to school to the turnover of another season. Vogue Optical (1645 Barrington) celebrates the birth of a new month with the biggest annual fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease in Canada. The Vogue Optical SuperWalk for Parkinson’s is held in 16 locations in the Maritimes, including downtown Halifax, on September 11.…
Trans-globe
you are the worse company i have every delt with! you act like your low trashy bed bug infrsted apt are condos. You take forever to approve your applications. You also breach outside of the tentant board to search information and you leave people homeless because YOU didnt feel like making a phone call Fuck…
music as torture
ok, i’m gonna preface this rant by saying i support the idea of attracting big name acts to play in halifax, using my tax dollars to increase tourism and local business is an acceptable idea, and i have nothing against the acts that played on the commons (ie personal taste). ok, rant time. who’s bloody…
MENTAL MOTORISTS
ok…HOLY FUCKER….driving by the rules will avoid accidents. Sure people all have different places to be at different times. The roads are a labrynth of peoples prioities. HOWEVER use your fucking turning signals, check your fucking blindspots, drive at least the fucking speed limit, stay in your fucking lane, dont change lanes in the middle…
Curb your Apes
So, I’m in a local coffee shop, getting some work done online, when an urban goddess enters with her three untrained yard apes. She proceeds to yap with another DG, with two kids of her own. These three “hope for our future” proceed to rearrange the furniture, sprawl around and be generally obnoxious while her…
Thanks
Thanks students. Thanks for returning. Thanks for your loud parties that last all night and thanks for waking us up at 4am just by talking. (Silly me, I thought you would have class on a Tuesday morning. Must not be that important.) Thanks for leaving your furniture on the lawns for days as well as…
Wild Abandon
Years ago, sultry-voiced pop singer Peggy Lee sang a very cynical and dark-hued “art” song head-snappingly written by Leiber and Stoller – a songsmith duo better known for a slew of classic rock ‘n’ roll pulse-lifters. The song in question, entitled: Is That All There Is, chimed chorus lyrics which immediately came to mind after…
Break up on Barkton
To the loud mouthed bitch on Barkton Lane–shut the fuck up. No one wants to hear your annoying, shrill voice, throughout the night as you pontificate about how you’re not compatible with you boyfriend. By all accounts, you did him a favor–because, you guessed it, you’re a big bitch. You ignorant, annoying, loud-mouthed cunt. Angry…
The Asshole Syndrome
first, we were co-workers. second, we were friends. third, we were roommates. and finally, i’ve had enough. i can admit that i was taken advantage of. a year and a half ago when we signed that lease (your first place at 21 yrs of age), you were harmless. you were a decent guy and followed…
Wintersleep + Dog Day at Dal!
There are very few times when we would suggest that the general public venture into the mass of irritation that is frosh week, but you should be putting your best replication skillz to work right now making yourself a Dalhousie University student ID so you can get into the (whhhhhhhat?) WINTERSLEEP and (seriously?!?) DOG DAY…
Dog Town
Bud Hunter is an affable guy who loves dogs and has filled his life with them. “Dog Town” is a monologue filled with humorous stories and colour pictures of the many mutts that have wormed their way into his heart. There’s a pie-loving three-legged rottweiler, an angry spitz/beagle cross with the habits of a cobra,…
Life is a Cabaret
I’m the first to admit that I’m a big fan of Dartmouth’s Saints Alive! Theatre Company. There’s just something about talented young people singing and dancing their hearts out that I think is inspiring. That being said, I can’t rave about their latest production “Life is a Cabaret.” It could be that I enjoyed last…
Joe: The Perfect Man
For Joe Mal (performed by gifted clown Rachelle Elie) an open casting call for roles in a production of Shakespeare’s psychodrama-tragedy Macbeth is a chance of his lifetime. Now smudging 60, Joe has been a longtime student of the play he says. And as such, (deep cautionary intake of breath here), he has some ideas…
Don’t you people listen to CBC Radio?
OK, so a lot of people have been bitching about the North is Freedom sculpture. Dude already said, when he was interviewed on Mainstreet, that it’ll be rusty for a couple of years, then it’ll harden into a sexy tough knobbly metal finish. Patience, people, patience. Public Art is Sexy
Go go Jospeh Pilates
Pilates was developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates. Halifax’s newest venue for physical fitness Pilates Studio (1283 South Park) opened yesterday. The studio focuses on the fundamentals of strength and conditioning training using the Pilates method. Owned and operated by Janel Fisher and Michael Harvie, the Pilates Studio hopes to make health…
2 B (Or Not 2 B)
2 B (Or Not 2 B) is a bewitching, very funny two-hander about the strange seduction of Franny – a once promising visual artist specializing in the use of bodily fluids on canvas; now, despairingly, reduced to an increasingly empty existence as an inconsequential dead end receptionist: a hapless loser in love and life. When…
Rejects desperately seeking venue
I just heard from “head reject” Steven James May that “after 7 consecutive years of holding the Salon des Refusés Atlantique each September at the historic Khyber Club space on Barrington Street, the Salon is currently without a venue for #8. Found out late last week from the City of Halifax that while we technically…
My First Moustache
I can’t imagine how it feels to have to perform comedy in front of an almost empty house. After all, laughter feeds and fuels comics. But Toronto’s Neil Cameron pulled off a high-energy set with less than a dozen people in attendance, and I can only imagine he’ll be even better in front of a…
Swelle
In a festival crowded with one-man shows, “Swelle” is destined to stand out because of a tour de force performance by Sarah English. The play is actually four pieces created by four different female writers. The first is told by a nerdy teenage girl as she broadcasts her video log—a conceit I found far more…
Metro Transit smoking
I’ve read lots of bitches and replies regarding smoking at Metro Transit bus terminals. I’d like to add a thought: we can’t expect people to follow the “No smoking” directive when the transit drivers themselves are setting the example by stepping off their buses between runs and lighting up, many times directly under the signs.…
Your Life Isn’t Worthless
I would like to remind all you transit user-types that catching the bus is not worth your life. You’ve probably seen it, a passenger sees a bus they want and they’re on the wrong side of the street. This usually sane person will then run across moving traffic and mow down pedestrians for the sake…
Car alarms
Hey you assholes with car alarms – do you really think everybody needs to hear your horns incessantly blaring for no good reason while you’re doing whatever shitheads like yourselves do when you’re away from your cars? If I ever saw one of your vehicles actually being stolen I’d probably help the thief just to…
Candy Store Leaves Bad Taste
What’s with the hiring practices at a local candy shop? They hire 3 or 4 people, pick one to keep and fire the rest after just 3 or 4 shifts. Is this legal? Moral? Or just poor business practice? And further evidence of their lack of class, they fire these “extra” employees over the phone!!…
Half Past Three
Film noir fans, ya’ve heard of The Big Sleep, The Big Heat, Farewell My Lovely and Kiss Me Deadly. You’ve thrilled to the seedy shadowy cinematic depictions of “the last shred of humanity, the last ray of light, the last drag of a cigarette, the last wisecrack, the last breath”. (Who knew these could be…
Prost-A-Tots
Ok so heres the deal ………I’m walking through the mall and what do i get ASS in the face some lil PROST-A-TOT bent over an the jewelry counter with her ASS on blast WTF is that sh**!!! I mean really it seems that those 16 something girls out there have no shame or class. Skirts…
Going Postal
What the fuck is it with you assholes who push over the mailbox outside my building? Pushing over a mailbox is a federal offense. I’ve made it a point to start calling the cops as soon as I hear the tell-tale smash, just a word of warning. tired of mail order idiots
Crown Hill Cemetery
I can relate to “Crown Hill Cemetery”, a monologue by New York City’s Lisa Haas. I too come from a family where death is a hot topic. In, fact the first thing out of my father’s mouth on his recent visit from Toronto was “I’m not having a funeral. You kids just get together and…
Cross-Sections
If you are checking out Fringe listings for something really cool to see this weekend, I recommend catching Cross-Sections playing at DANspace. This is a delight-filled program of films-on-dance about dance-on-film shorts, live dance pieces and one riveting outing of live flesh and blood dancer partnered and partnering two like-costumed dancers on screen. Dance of…
Joe: The Perfect Man
The stage is generally piled high with corpses at the end of a Shakespearean tragedy, but by the time the titular character of “Joe: the Perfect Man” gets through with “Macbeth” it looks more like scene of a particularly rowdy kid’s birthday party. You see, Joe (played by the effervescent Rachelle Elie looking like a…
Better hope I don’t find you!
To the mother fucking SOB who broke into my car last night on Trillium Court in Dartmouth and stole my corroded battery. You didn’t have to break the window you dumb fuck. As the doors were unlocked. Better hope I don’t find out who you are! You will be sorry! PO’d in Dartmouth
Do not rent from TransGlobe!!!
I live in an apartment building owned by TransGlobe in Dartmouth. I had bought all my furniture in the last 6 months. And yet, I have been bitten by bed bugs about 20 times a day for 4 months before I realized there has been an outbreak in the building for numerous months prior. When…
Cut the Crap – please
You keep writing letters but you dont leave a last name or a phone number. You call yourself ‘Sandra’ but you leave no contact details. You are hurting my parents very much and I dont know why. They already lost their son PLEASE stop doing this. Davids Sister
The Peter Parkers can’t lose
New Brunswick five-piece The Peter Parkers dropped its new album We Were All Born on a Burial Ground two weeks ago in its hometown of Moncton, but Haligonian fans won’t have to make the trek—the group headlines a show at the Marquee tonight. And the band seems to work on Al Tuck time—it’s been five…
serious question
what CAN this city do right?? we all know what it can’t do. But there has got to be some things Halifax is right on the money about? anyone? Halifgonian
A big THANK-YOU to my loving relatives
I just want to send out a big THANK-YOU to my loving relatives. Since my Dad died in 97 I haven’t heard a peep from any of you. I mean you were at his funeral, but that was the last time. No Christmas cards, no phone calls, nada….When my my died in 2006, not a…
Pre-emptive Bitch
Concert go-ers; should it rain on Saturday please do everyone a favour and leave your umbrella at home. It’s damn near impossible to see the stage through a sea of umbrellas. Buy a dollar store poncho, bring a raincoat, wear a hat, bring a damn garbage bag but leave the umbrella at home. Umbrella Hater
Wild Abandon
Well, I hate to weigh in too early, but I think I may actually have seen the 2008 Fringe Festival hit on opening night. Award-winning playwright Daniel MacIvor’s weird and wonderful “Wild Abandon” got a standing ovation from the good-sized crowd, and it was well deserved. This one-man show stars Kyle Gillis, an outstanding actor…
A Mighty Wind
I’m curious why I never see anybody enjoying the deck on their apartment. Seriously, I never see people hanging out enjoying a summer day on their balcony. Now that it’s in my mind it seems I notice it even more. I dream about kicking the front window out of my apartment and building my own…
Cupcakes, Cocktails & Bars
Cupcakes get your cupcakes. There’s good news for sweet lovers across HRM: Susie’s Shortbreads new boutique bakery (1589 Dresden Row) officially opened its doors last weekend. Check out their retro malt shop inspired atmosphere and enjoy over 40 flavours of delicious cupcake goodness… Snau Bar (Dresden Row) is the name of the new high-end Lebanese…
Bed Bugs Infested Me
Someone needs to do something about the Halifax bed bug infestation. I don’t care who, I don’t care how. Ocean Towers sucks, I’m now furnitureless, and broke. And they don’t do shit about it! How can they allow people to move into these conditions with no warning. And now all I hear on the radio…
Hounds Around Town
It was over five years ago that local entrepreneur Angela Granchelli changed career gears. With nearly two decades of retail management and IT work, she opted to try her hand at something that suited her skills, lifestyle and personality –in July 2003 shelaunched **Hounds Around Town**, Nova Scotia’s first online doggy boutique. “The company started…
That Horrible Stink
What in the hell is going on with the new sewage treatment plant that went on line earlier this year on Barrington St.. Something must have gone terribly wrong. It seemd to work fine in the beginning, but now It’s creating the most unholy stink imaginable. It’s enought to make you puke. I have to…
Metro Madness
Can someone tell me why it’s acceptable practice to have 2/3 of the metro centre sold (all floor and lower bowl) for a concert when you are first in line for tickets? What kind of bullshit operation is this!!? Viewing Neil Young from upper bowl
wtf whore
You are into me one night and then my ex the next. do you enjoy slutting around with whoever you can? looking for a fling
hate cab drivers
to the cab company with the awful cab driver: you pulled in my DRIVEWAY waved and aknowledged me, it was pouring rain and I was trying to lock my door. When you beeped the horn at me I couldn’t believe when after showing up an hour after I called you allowed the people who walked…
Don’t shoot the messenger
For the next little while, the cashiers are to ask the customers if they want to donate $2.00 for the IWK. Today, I saw as one of the cashiers ask a customer this, and the woman sighed wearily and said “No, I ALREADY donated. Everytime I pay for my things, the cashiers ask me this.…
The Waiting Game
To a certain cab company who’s name is synonymous with gambling: thanks for leaving me stranded in Bayer’s Lake for over AN HOUR AND A HALF on a Sunday night. I even called back and politely asked when the car might show up and was told “I was at the top of the list” but…
Your car is bigger than my bike…
All it took was two consecutive days of near fatal bicycle incidents to prompt this, Bitch. Pulling out from your stop sign into oncoming traffic (moi) on Coburg forcing a cyclist to grind majestically across the pavement to an abrupt, not to mention painful, hault with my smashed helmet resting against your car, which was…
Me And Josephine
For 50 years, Freda Josephine McDonald, born June 3 1906 in St. Louis Missouri, mother a washerwoman, father a vaudeville drummer, enthralled Parisians as the “Black Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, the “Creole Goddess” – the one, the only, Mademoiselle Josephine Baker. She danced with erotic sensuality. And clowned unabashedly. She sang. She starred in feature…
Homegrown at Atlantic Film Festival
This year’s Atlantic Film Festival line-up is that good, I’m going to set aside my Stephen Harper arts-cut ranting to focus on the incredible number of local films that made the cut, and then figure out how the heck I’m going to see them all. Ann Verrall’s first feature Nonsense Revolution, produced by Thom Fitzgerald,…
Opening Morning
“Opening Morning” is a short one-hander written by local playwright Stephen Pitman. It’s the story of a young writer teetering on the edge of success and is told in a series of phone conversations with his smothering mother and unsupportive girlfriend. It’s a difficult set-up to pull off, as it can be boring to watch…
Jest in Mind
If you like the busker festival, you’ll love Trevor Poole’s entertaining magic act “Jest in Mind”. It’s like watching a talented busker who doesn’t fill the first three quarters of the act with hollow come-ons, and doesn’t constantly hassle you for money. The premise of the act is that Poole can pull thoughts from the…
Fringing this year?
Tickets are available at the stage or up to one hour before the performance at the Fringe kiosk, which is located at Neptune Studio Theatre (1593 Argyle)—except for Sept. 2-4, when it moves to the Khyber ICA (1588 Barrington). Theatre times can change without notice so be sure to check the website for the final…
This week’s live gig snap
Al Tuck: Sunday, August 24, 2:19pm, The Incredible Picnic
Al Tuck
Al TuckSunday, August 24, 2:19pm, The Incredible Picnicphoto Scott Blackburn
Decrepit Dartmouth High entrance.
Remarks: Overgrown weeds, cracked pavement, broken sidewalks and dilapidated fences are what you first see upon arrival at the school. What kind of message does that send to staff and students? Clark says patching the pavement has been a “summer project,” but the parking lot has been falling apart for years, and nothing’s changed this…
Sculpture suggests failure
To the editor, Public art should at times represent, educate, commemorate, articulate and symbolize but it should always inspire. With all due respect to the artist, the “new” sculpture in front of the North End Library on Gottingen fails at all levels. What was the jury thinking and why did this competition fail so miserably?…
Super Sustainable City
Hi Chris Benjamin, I just read your Sustainable City column (“Wild ideas,” Aug 21) and I gotta say I enjoyed it immensely. You tackle serious subject matter but present it with wit, charm and incredible writing talent. This could have been a horrendously boring article in the wrong hands but it had to be written…
Get the whole scalping story
To the editor, The author Thomas C. Haliburton’s character Sam Slick said something along the lines of “a college education shows how devilish little other people know.” Teacher Cheryl LeBlanc-Weldon (quoted in “Dishonouring genocide,” Reality Bites, Aug 14) should study the whole history of 1700s Nova Scotia to realize scalping bounties were paid by both…
Eva Madden’s Game play
The air in Theatre Nova Scotia’s Agricola Street space is stuffy, which is what happens when people are staging faux swordfights between its modest walls for hours. Eva Madden, the director of Atlantic Fringe Festival entry The Confidence Game, instructs actors Joe McKibbon and Terry Coolen as Tobin and Roger. “The struggle that’s going on…
Music city maniacs
Halifax is, by definition, a transient city. With its fresh crop of academics arriving each and every September, so changeability is ubiquitous—whether it’s in the population, the weather or the music scene. This past spring, Halifax adoptee Jill Barber packed up her things and headed to Vancouver for love. The region’s former night sky greeters…
Wanna Little Havana?
Before the Great Smoking Ban of ’06, Tom’s was the destination for cigar smokers of all sorts (not just the high-end Jon Alan’s types). A bluish haze hung in the air perpetually, the smoke and the moody atmosphere combining to create a distinct, if a little seedy, ambience. The long, dark, L-shape room is barely…
Cold comfort
The big story through the late part of this year, as colder weather replaces our mild lingering summer days, will be the high cost of heating. In August 2007, the price of oil was just under 60 cents a litre, and today it’s approximately twice that, with prices likely to rise as demand increases with…
Important phone numbers
Acadian Bus Lines 454-9321 Atlantic Lottery’s winning lotto numbers 468-1072 Bin Doctor 462-7468 Canadian Security Intelligence Service 420-5900 The Coast 422-6278 Crime Stoppers 422-8477 Dalhousie Student Union 494-1106 Environment Canada Weather 426-9090 Gambling Problem Help Line 1-888-347-8888 Food Bank Metro 457-1900 Halifax Regional Library reference desk at Spring Garden branch 490-5710 Halifax Stanfield International Airport…
Savage Love
Q: I have been in a relationship with the same guy since I was about 16. It’s been a little more than four years now, but I came out to him a year ago about the fact that I’m bisexual, which he has no problem with. So since then, I have had wild fantasies about…
Westmount’s infected trees
Westmount looks like the perfect place to live. Kids frolic in the field behind St. Agnes School and neighbours greet each other by name. The neighbourhood has a unique design—front yards are the size of backyards—so people see more of each other. There’s just one problem and it’s keeping Lois Beaton up at night: “They’re…
Green grade
Dalhousie University As the largest university on this list, it’s not surprising that Dal boasts a three-pronged approach to sustainable policy—there’s the university’s sustainability office, another one based in student government and a faculty group focused on weaving sustainability concepts into Dal’s curriculums. To this end, Dal will soon be boasting a College of Sustainability…
Going for gold
That’s what a friend of mine said recently. The opening ceremonies—with CGIed fireworks and a lip-synching nine-year-old—have just gone too far. The packaged event—in China, where the markets are open but based on the closed mouths of protesters it’s still clearly a Mao, Mao, Mao, Mao World—had too many folks throwing their arms up in…
Jaywalking to justice
A guard led me into an empty shower area and ordered me to strip. “Drop your clothes in this bag,” he told me. “Then bend over and cough.” I hesitated for the moment it took me to realize he planned to inspect my anus for contraband. “Come on,” the man urged me. “I don’t enjoy…
Student alliance schools Halifax
You’d expect Halifax to give more of a shit about its student community. Tens of thousands of vibrant minds arriving each September, as natural as the tide coming in, are a resource to make any other city drool. But not this town, where municipal services like Metro Transit and the police go beyond apathy to…
Eastern wisdom
It’s September in Halifax and that means one thing: frosh. Welcome to all of you, particularly those from away, who are finding themselves in Halifax for the first time. In the interest of being proper hosts, we at The Coast thought to give you, the newbies, some coveted information that will make your transition here…
Universities draw them in
The art galleries of Mount Saint Vincent, Saint Mary’s and Dalhousie universities operate in post-secondary institutions where fine arts degrees aren’t offered. The bulk of funding for programming at each space comes from the Canada Council for the Arts, not the institutions’ administrations, which tend to assist with operating funds (staffing and equipment costs). Although…
Clothes minded
There was a time in Halifax, not so long ago, that if you wanted to dress in local designs or with the environment in mind you’d end up looking like a church-basement yoga instructor or decked out in a tartan muumuu. Well, you’re lucky, fashion-conscious students: It’s a great time to move to this city…
Remedial roommates
You and your roommate can be two ships passing in the night pretty easily during the school year. That may force you to communicate via the written word. Most of us are guilty of leaving behind a passive-aggressive note to get our point across, or have been on the receiving end. It’s unavoidable sometimes, with…
Full metal racket
“Well what do you Thrash?”–Chrissy”What do you got?”–Corey Webster (From the skater-gang film, Thrashin’) Described as two days of insanity, Thrashfest moves from a Halifax basement to the confines of Gus’ Pub on August 29 and 30. With the move comes an expansion of the lineup, with over 13 bands playing this year. The brainchild…
Inside Haliwood
It’s a little bit shocking how many movies have been made in and around Halifax. When you consider the geography, especially: We’re a long way off from the traditional movie-making centres of Toronto, New York and Los Angeles. A Toronto producer used to say, “If it’s being made here, there’s something wrong with it,” and…
A pedestrian primer
As students, you represent the incoming population wave arriving in this Atlantic coastal city. The outgoing wave: Tourists. You’re here at the beginning of the end of tourist season, so numbers may perhaps not be as great as during the height of summer, but there is enough tourism still happening that you can and will…
Sign of the times
Shawn Duggan is a student of body language. The local actor, who’s appeared in more than a dozen plays (mostly with local company Angels & Heroes), short films and TV, learned by getting on stage and in front of cameras. Next week he returns to Nova Scotia Community College’s waterfront campus in Dartmouth as a…
Home furnishings on a budget
Perhaps you forgot to wave goodbye to Ikea on your way past Montreal, yet despite the Bring Ikea to Halifax, NS, Facebook group and its 2,092 members, it’s true: There’s no easy-to-assemble Swedish furniture store in Halifax. But don’t let the lack of easy access to Billy bookcases and cheap European kitchenware discourage you as…
Come on, teacher!
Mention Lucy from the Trailer Park Boys and fake tits and bleach-blonde wigs come to mind. Maybe “trailer ho” slips in there, too. As Ricky’s on-again, off-again something-or-other on TPB, Lucy struts on screen with all the glamour a trailer-trash cussing woman should have: None. What comes to mind if you find out she’ll be…
Skratch Bastid’s Labour Day Barbecue
It’s July in Reykjavik, and a small crowd mills around waiting for a local hip-hop show. A prototypical-looking Icelander, wearing a cassette tape around his neck, does his thing before Josh Martinez takes the stage, with the soon-to-be-shirtless Irish DJ, Flip. Perhaps it’s when DJ Flip spins the opening of “Eye of the Tiger,” accompanied…
Tower of wobble
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: When it gets windy, Fenwick Towers sways so much the water sloshes in the toilets. There’s a pool on the top floor of Fenwick that can’t be filled because the weight of the water would topple the building. Or exert so much pressure that tenants two floors…
Right to rent
“It’s important for people to know what rights they don’t have,” Cole Webber says to me on a hot afternoon on Gottingen. It might sound like a strange perspective to have for the new coordinator of Dalhousie Legal Aid’s Tenants Rights Project, but Webber says we are badly in need of an overhaul of our…
Chris Martin & The Trouble Shooters
The dog days of summer aren’t over just yet. This weekend may call for more rain, but there’s a plethora of local bluegrass/alt-country acts happening this weekend. Keith Urban may be rolling through town on Saturday, but if you’re not feeling the $109 ticket price, check out these options.Ten buckaroos will get you into the…
Popular Diversions
“No other province has a waste management plan that bans organics from landfills,” says Jim Bauld proudly. Bauld is manager of solid waste resources for Halifax Regional Municipality. He adds that other Canadian municipalities have only recently started to catch up to Nova Scotia’s success in diverting 54 percent of our waste away from landfills.…
Death Race
Death Race is the kind of movie you would catch on the Spike network. It has a kind of purposeful quality that intends to apply some metaphor or meaning to its gratuitous violence and dystopian vision of American society, but fails to realize that this is, in fact, a movie about muscle car races set…
School of hard knocks
Don’t be unreasonably afraid of the dark During my first term of university, I never went out after dark. During many of those lonely nights indoors I imagined sunset as opening a Pandora’s box of serial killers, rapists, robbers, flukemen, chupacabra, boogens, ghoulies and, most terrifying, amorous frat trash running wild and with impunity. I…
Heartbreakers, super-spellers
“When I told my mother I was doingthis, she howled,” says Evan Solomon, the familiar CBC face and host of Canada’s Super Speller, a new Halifax-produced series. “Then she dug up a spelling test I did so badly on I hid it behind a picture. Three out of 10. Boat: b-o-w-t.” So the dude can’t…
itune, I am
Two years ago, I was stealing internet from a neighbour, which allowed me access to her iTunes. The library itself was empty, but her Limewire list was full of the most lowest-common-denominator music ever, all Top 40 club jams—Usher’s “Yeah!,” Justin Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body,” “Lady Marmalade” from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. On one hand,…
The House Bunny
Anna Faris owns the role of Shelley the Playboy Bunny in The House Bunny. She has a self-aware quality that never veers into smug irony and wears silly lingerie with aplomb. It’s perfect for the role of a Playboy Bunny who magically becomes a house-mother to a sorority of geeky, shy sisters. Karen McCullah Lutz…
Coping strategies
Sometimes we just need some advice from people who aren’t family or friends. A major change in life like going to school is stressful enough that universities have counselling centres set up to help students deal with different issues—whether mental health-related or just that unbearable feeling of loneliness from being away from home. A number…
Hamlet 2
Hamlet 2 is hilarious because its filmmakers know exactly whom the joke is on. Steve Coogan can play deluded boobs like Dana Marschz in his sleep by now but still attacks this role with gusto. Hamlet 2 has its problems. Catherine Keener as Coogan’s wife is so inessential to the plot that her usually welcome…
Sex, lies and later
It’s that nowhere time when Friday is Saturday but no one acknowledges it, and the bar’s pulse is drunk and sluggish. Dance music throbs like a building-sized headache and the place reeks of stale air and deflated expectations. Even the underage girls look haggard, their face paint drooping, their hair ratted. A cadre of guys…
